Azire VPN

[calcu007 5]

Any feedback?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

I've used Azire, via wireguard, in my router for over two years.  I started with them when they and Mullvad were the only wireguard providers I could identify, and they seemed the simpler to use.  I continue to use Azire because of their consistently solid speeds and especially their absolute reliability.  I use two Azire servers daily, one fixed and one rotating, with near-constant light bandwidth, and only once in those 2+ years did I ever find my chosen server offline.  It was back within an hour IIRC.  And while I consider Air my primary VPN, I like having a backup VPN as well.  Helps sometimes with blocked sites, for example.

Azire has very few servers.  For example there are three in the US, two in Germany, two in Spain, and there is one in Switzerland, but they clearly take having each of them up and working well very seriously, so having so few does not really concern me.  I use European and US servers, and generally they are only lightly loaded.  Their Stockholm location seems the only one that is heavily used per their server-status page, which is better than nothing though nowhere near as informative as Air's.

Their servers are diskless without CDROM drives, and with sealed USB, VGA, and serial ports.  They are not rented but are their own, configured and tested by Azire in Sweden and then installed at the remote data centers by Azire's own people.  I don't remember details of their privacy policy, but I remember I was very positively impressed.

There are downsides.  Their support, via email, seems a bit slow to me and not always really helpful, though my experience is limited.  There is no online community on their site, but I have not looked into reddit, etc.  Their are no domain names that map to the IP of the best server in a region like Air has.  I'm not aware of Azire deleting the wireguard server's last-used client IP after a timeout the way Air does.  And their wireguard configs do not use the extra pre-shared key like Air's do.  I don't consider that a real issue, as the standard wireguard key is plenty long enough for security for now.  For me though the one really difficult Azire downside is an undocumented "feature": For security, your wireguard peer setup (your public key and other details) at their server evaporates after some unknown (and they won't tell... I asked) number of weeks without use at that individual server.  So you have to reconfigure for that server.  Experience says this timeout interval is probably more than 4 weeks but less than 12.  This makes it hard to use Azire as a rarely used backup VPN.  I've had to develop an occasional routine of briefly connecting to each configured Azire wireguard server from each of my configured client devices, just as a sort of "keep alive" action.

Azire's primary protocol is actually OpenVPN, but I have not tried it.  Air is my OpenVPN provider.  And the Azire wireguard keep-alive "feature" has me gradually moving my less-used wireguard clients over to Air as well.  I still favor Azire for my router's hardwired wireguard clients though, for Azire's absolute reliability.  Occasionally I find I cannot establish a wireguard connection with an Air server.  Doesn't happen with Azire.

 

[999null 0]

Azire is good, but no open port, so I came here. 

All Round it's a good VPN.  

I did not use any media services, (netflix, prime etc)
so I have no comment on that

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

To add to my longer comment above...

Indeed, Azire does not offer static port forwarding like Air does, a critical distinguishing feature for some of us.  Air is very special for offering that.  (I've used Air port forwarding many times through OpenVPN but haven't tried it through wireguard.)

Re Air having occasional wireguard server unavailability: I haven't seen that in recent weeks.  Maybe that problem is solved now?

Re streaming... when I first started using Azire I was briefly able to stream Netflix through their newest US server (as an experiment, as I have no actual need).  It didn't last long though.  Netflix shut that down pretty fast.

Most of the time now, if a website is troublesome through either Air or Azire, it seems to be a problem through the other as well.  Very occasionally only one of them will work for a particular site.  Could be either one.  (And this is never a DNS difference, as I don't use either Air or Azire DNS normally.)

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

Minor update: Azire has added a Los Angeles server, their fourth in the US.  In the announcement they indicated that further new servers would be coming soon in Seattle and Dallas as well.  Using that Los Angeles server, a family member's Linksys WRT1900ACSv2 router running dd-wrt perhaps 30mi from that server hit a new personal best for wireguard speed: 469 Mbps download via a nominally 400 Mbps ISP connection.  Pretty clear that the ISP was the limiting factor, even with that 5-year-old 1900AC-class router.

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

Another minor update: Azire has added servers in Dallas and Seattle, making six in the US now.  Re reliability, a few days ago their Swiss and Thai servers were both down one day, so they aren't perfect.  See https://www.azirevpn.com/docs/status Do note that this Azire status page is not maintained to Air standards.  They only explicitly show wireguard servers for a few sites, for example, even though AFAIK all their sites have wireguard availability now.   (I know all six US ones do.)  A colored dot indicates a server is up/down.  Timestamps on the status data do not reflect my local time zone but seem to be either UTC or Swedish time.

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

Some recent config updating led to communication with Azire and some new info.

On the Azire server-status page: their incoming/outgoing numbers are not like Air's.  At Azire they are upload/download from the customer, so they are usually very different with outgoing (customer download) dominating.  Also, they are in transition to a new back-end management system, and the status page reflects only the part of the system that has made that transition, so it may be awhile before it's fully accurate.

Azire has also introduced an iOS app. The link on Azire's install page took my phone right to it, in the App store, but an App store search wouldn't find it for me.  Intentional?

They have also revised the install procedure for those routers, etc, that require creating config files on the Azire website.  The new system allows up to 10 "devices," which seem to function like Air devices in that this is where user public keys are kept.  it is possible to delete old devices to make room for new, which means they do not need to have wireguard key registrations expire on their own after several weeks of nonuse as before, which was always my big complaint about Azire.  I haven't tested this nonexpiration conjecture yet, so YMMV.  Azire's device system is still a bit raw, with devices identified not by names like at Air but by the interface IP addresses 10.X.Y.Z assigned to them.  So it's not really a system for technical beginners.

Overall, Air easily remains my favorite VPN service.  I'd call Azire and Mullvad tied for my number two, with Mullvad winning for ease of use and a super-private registration scheme and Azire easily winning (over Mullvad, not Air) on server speed and reliability,

[Air4141841 24]

I subscribed for 2 years.   according to my emails it was back in 2021.     the token login system would not work...  it tried for hours and it should have been simple, but didn't work
they def beefed up security as they are using sha512 now.   it was 160 back then.   probably my biggest dislike back then 

I think I tried Wireguard a few times.  but this was before it was known you have to tweak the MTU settings on the interface to keep the connection steady...    I still prefer Openvpn for many reasons! 
I doubt I would ever subscribe again,  but it's good to know they have upgraded their servers and services.    

[Quallian 26]

On 6/19/2023 at 11:02 AM, fishbasketballaries said:

 

Very poor from the description. Only 1 port that expires, only temporary assignment!

[space5 2]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:19 PM, Quallian said:

Very poor from the description. Only 1 port that expires, only temporary assignment!

AirVPN is blocked by some websites. It's good to use a second VPN that is not blocked by websites. AirVPN is good for port forwarding.

[space5 2]

I confirmed that AzireVPN offers only 1 port that expires in one year or less.

AirVPN's port forwarding is not replaceable by other VPNs. However, AirVPN servers are blocked by websites.

AzireVPN is not blocked by websites I use. Mullvad is not blocked by websites I use. Mullvad has more servers than AzireVPN.

My current recommendation is to use AirVPN for port forwarding and mullvad for web browsing.

I have not tested cryptostorm, but it seems to be dying.

[SurprisedItWorks 49]

It is NOT correct that AzireVPN offers forwarding of only one port.  I have two ports forwarded there now.  When you set up forwarding, you set it up for a particular device (intra-VPN IP subnet), and it is automatically set up specifically on the server to which you are connected when doing the set up.  You can set up multiple ports on one server as long as they are for different devices.  (You are limited to 10 devices, and I assume each act of forwarding setup is limited to the one server, but I have not tested that.)

The forwarding setup page has a drop-down menu for desired expiration, and the times offered range up to a year with a "No expiry" option at the end.  At present the latter option does not appear to work, and selecting it will get you a one-year (less one day) expiration.  I have a ticket in now to ask them about this.  There is also a choice of whether the port number should be displayed only when first set and hidden thereafter, for superhyperprivacy, forcing you to keep good records.  Currently it will be hidden even if you specify that it should not be.  Right now a weak link is that if the server goes down, a hidden port number for forwarding is simply lost.  Forwarding will not resume when the server reboots.   And you can't request a particular port when you set things up again.  It's always "random" (to you).  So it isn't entirely a matter of keeping good records.  Fortunately, their servers very rarely go down.  Presumably these quirks will be whittled away or at least down soon.

There is no option to limit forwarding to a particular protocol, so I assume it works for TCP and UDP both.  I've only tested TCP so far.  All my comments here assume forwarding is through a wireguard tunnel.  I have not used OpenVPN with Azire and have no idea what might change.

Edited ... by SurprisedItWorks
clearer wording

[calcu007 5]

Their privacy is s little vague in details. Dont mention about user activity or statistics.

[Staff 9972]

Hello!
We have noticed only now that this thread contains ads for Azire. Please, at least do not link their promotional messages and press releases! Links now have been removed. The whole forum is meant to report first hand experiences from other VPNs freely but it's not meant to advertise them. Momentarily locking to re-consider the whole forum.
Kind regards